Presidents & football

Football 2008/ Political Football? From the gridiron to the White House

August 22, 2008|By Josh Robbins, Sentinel Staff Writer

T.R. helps make game safer

Theodore Roosevelt loved sports, hunting and the outdoors, but he grew concerned about college football, which bore little resemblance to what the sport looks like today. One newspaper reported that 18 college players died in 1905 alone. He summoned officials from Harvard, Princeton and Yale to the White House, and that meeting led to the formation of the American Football Rules Committee. College football adopted rules that opened up the game, including the forward pass.

Ike stars at West Point

Dwight D. Eisenhower is better known for his love of golf, but he was a star halfback at West Point. He made the Black Knights' varsity team as a second-year student, and he played on the 1912 team that posted a 5-3 record. On Nov. 9, 1912, Army played the Carlisle Indians and Jim Thorpe, whom Ike tackled once in the 27-6 Carlisle victory. Ike injured a knee and quit football that season. He did coach Army's junior-varsity team. Perhaps that experience helped him later?

NFL plays after JFK is killed

John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. The NFL faced a difficult choice: play that Sunday or postpone their games? NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle called Kennedy press secretary Pierre Salinger that afternoon and sought advice. They decided Kennedy would have wanted the games to go on, so the NFL played. The AFL postponed its games. Rozelle late said that allowing the NFL to play that weekend was his biggest regret as commissioner.

NFL responds to 9/11

The events of Sept. 11, 2001, forced the NFL again to confront the issue of playing in the wake of a national tragedy. Commissioner Paul Tagliabue chose to postpone the weekend's games. He consulted with the Bush administration and heard from owners, such as the Giants' Wellington Mara, who remembered the public-relations debacle of 1963. "We . . . have decided that our priorities for this weekend are to pause, grieve and reflect," Tagliabue said.

Reagan plays George Gipp

In 1940, the movie Knute Rockne All American was released, and it still stands as one of the greatest sports movies of all time. It also retains significant political overtones to this day because of one of its actors: Ronald Reagan. He played All-American George Gipp, who died on Dec. 14, 1920, of a strep infection. Reagan would invoke Gipp's famous phrase -- "win one for the Gipper" -- often during his time as the 40th president of the United States.